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BIG LIE ELECTION INTEGRITY

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Election denial movement sets stage for chaos on Election Day and its aftermath

So-called election integrity activists are calling for Trump to declare martial law, mandate hand-counting of ballots, seize voting machines, and refuse to certify elections at a whim

Written by John Knefel & Sophie Lawton

Published 10/20/26 2:17 PM EDT

Updated 10/20/26 4:58 PM EDT

The election denial movement has spent months trying and largely failing to subvert the midterms, and now some of its major figures are articulating their plans to attempt to disrupt the vote on Election Day and sow chaos in the weeks and months that follow.

Their proposals include calling for President Donald Trump to declare martial law, sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the military to polling places, forcing officials to count ballots by hand, demanding the federal government seize voting machines, and working to stop the certification of some elections.

The main figures pushing at least one or more of the above measures include former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, her lawyer Peter Ticktin, and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, among other election denial and right-wing media figures.

These developments follow months of activity from right-wing media operatives who have pushed for the implementation of various anti-voting rights measures, many of which have been thwarted, have stalled, or never came to fruition. A MAGA media effort to convince Trump to declare a national emergency seems to be dead in the water.

Even as many of these pre-Election Day efforts have faltered, new conspiracy theories continue to emerge. Mitchell, who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has claimed without evidence that left-wing organizations are illegally harvesting ballots from nursing homes, for example.

But as the election draws near, some figures have set their sights on the day itself and what comes after.

Pushing for chaos on Election Day

Noncitizen voting is a vanishingly rare occurrence

Right-wing media figures in the election denial movement are pushing to make Election Day confusing and chaotic on the pretext of preventing noncitizen voting — a vanishingly rare occurrence.

Forcing hand-counts

Tina Peters, a hero to election deniers, and her lawyer Peter Ticktin, a personal friend of Trump’s, have been pressing Trump to attempt to force officials to hand-count ballots, sometimes instead of machines and sometimes in addition to them.

In July, Peters released a “100-Day Risk Mitigation Election Plan” that would require officials to “apply the ‘Bank-Teller Method’: independently hand-count every ballot for federal contests before certification and reconcile that count with the tabulator result.”

Then in August, Peters claimed the administration already had the “authority” to “issue immediate cybersecurity guidance and assistance to transition all counties to hand mark paper ballots,” and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had the duty to interfere in how states use voting machines.

Peters has also allegedly met with Trump on at least two occasions since her release from prison on election-related charges — once on June 30 and again on October 5.

Ticktin, meanwhile, has taken a slightly different approach recently, acknowledging that eliminating machines at this point is not feasible. On September 29, Ticktin said, “We could still have an order that requires — not hand-counting and get rid of the machines, because there’s no time for that — but let the machines do the count, but before the count — but then let us commandeer and get the ballots. If we have the ballots, we can count them ourselves.” He added that “it would be done after the election, but before certification."

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From the September 29, 2026, edition of Alex Jones Live's The Alex Jones Show

Ed Martin is another proponent of this unnecessary and counterproductive measure. On Bannon’s War Room episode on October 6, Martin claimed that any election officials who want to “switch out your state and stop using the Chinese compromised machines, you can do it, and you can just ask [Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne] Mullin for the money and he can help you pay for more people, pay for hand-marked paper ballots and counters and everything else.” He also noted that “Tina Peters met with Trump” recently.

Cleta Mitchell has long been on crusade to limit the use of voting machines, and, like Peters, has demanded that Lutnick interfere in state election processes based on an incorrect interpretation of an obscure federal regulation. Mitchell said that Lutnick should order “mandatory, pre-certification manual confirmation hand counts of ballots in 5% of the precincts and central count for each jurisdiction in the country.”

Stationing ICE and other federal officers or the military at polling places

Calls for ICE or other federal officers at polling places aren’t new — Steve Bannon has been making the demand since at least August 2025 and has continued to do so throughout the midterm election cycle — but they have become more widespread. As recently as August, Bannon said: “I think ICE agents belong at polling places."

Mike Davis, a frequent guest of Bannon’s, said on September 1: “I would have ICE agents and other federal law enforcement at every polling place across America. And that should only scare away noncitizens.”

YouTube streamer Tim Pool said in July that “at the bare minimum, we expect something like we will have federal law enforcement agency at polling locations in states that do not cooperate” with the Department of Homeland Security.

Jerome Corsi, former employee of Alex Jones, took an even more extreme line in calling for Trump to send the military to polling sites under the guise of a national emergency. “Donald Trump can take control of the elections,” Corsi said on September 12. “He can have the military or National Guard go in and make sure the elections are done legitimately.” Corsi claims to have been involved in drafting a proposed “national emergency” order.

Several other right-wing pundits have endorsed the idea of having ICE at polling places over the course of the year as well, including The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, MAGA influencer Benny Johnson, Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

The right-wing media figures plotting to sow doubt and contest results after the midterms

Declaring martial law and involving the military in recounts

Ticktin is the most vocal election denial activist to suggest that Trump invoke martial law after the midterms.

On September 19, Ticktin said during an appearance on Real America’s Voice, “Either we’re going to fix this thing before this election or we’re probably going to see martial law after this election.”

Then during an appearance on The Alex Jones Show on September 29, Ticktin said that if the election is “stolen from us because of their machines,” then Trump will “have to declare martial law.”

“I didn’t say declare martial law for the elections,” he added, “I’m saying in the event that the elections are stolen, what other options are there?”

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From the September 29, 2026, edition of Alex Jones Live's The Alex Jones Show

A few other prominent figures in the election denial movement have also called for Trump to declare martial law. These voices include MAGA “prophet” Julie Green and Douglas Frank, one of Ticktin’s fellow travellers.

On September 15, Green claimed that an impending declaration of martial law would lead to the mass arrests of politicians, judges, and lawyers. “It’s not just an election. There has to be a political reset,” Green said, “During the martial law it will not just be politicians tried for treason. So will judges, AGs, lawyer, prosecutors, who are against this nation."

On August 22, Frank said of Trump, “I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he declares martial law and we have the National Guard come out and we have to redo the election.”

MAGA fantasies about involving the military after the election extend beyond these calls for martial law as well. Where Corsi wanted the military to take over election systems, others in the movement have called on the military to intervene in the counting or recounting of votes.

Seizing machines or ballots

Beyond suggesting the president declare martial law, Ticktin has concocted a plan for the government to seize ballots or election machines in order to “count them ourselves” and prevent supposed fraud. Ticktin predicted on Alex Jones’ show that Trump would “seize the machines” in order to protect himself from prosecution by the Democrats if they win the House and Senate.

QAnon influencer and election denier Juan O. Savin said in an interview streamed on Rumble that any election machines with foreign components could “be seized as evidence and investigated and canceled.” Savin pushed for Trump to delay the election, but argued, “If you need the public to turn their brains on and become engaged, don't pause it then. Let it run the distance and then go seize those machines” after the election is over.

Right-wing media figures have previously supported the seizing of election materials, such as when the FBI raided election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, and when Sheriff Chad Bianco seized 650,000 ballots in Riverside County, California. Real America's Voice host Wayne Allyn Root said of Bianco’s efforts, “I guarantee you he was going to find that all or most of them are filled with fraud and filled with illegal aliens,” and called the court’s order to return the ballots “a disgrace."

Trump himself has reportedly said that he “regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after his loss in the 2020 election,” according to The New York Times.

Pushing for Trump to delay the election

Juan O. Savin is not the only figure who has suggested Trump delay the elections in order to investigate voting machines or other election infrastructure. In an interview with David Nino Rodriguez on Rumble, former Overstock.com CEO turned election conspiracy theorist Patrick Byrne called on Trump to “delay things."

Byrne's plan includes Trump putting former U.S. Agency for International Development employee Tim Meisburger in charge of elections countrywide and making it a one-day affair in which “you have to show an ID” and “there's no technology used.” He further suggested Trump “delays them and then puts this guy in charge of the election. And he could do a national security order, do something like that, and we could have an election like they run it in Burma.”

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From an October 15, 2026, stream by David Nino Rodriguez uploaded to Insights 21 channel on Rumble

Demanding Trump or other officials not certify elections

In an early October interview, Juan O. Savin claimed Trump has indicated “that we're going to fight hard to not allow them to certify the election after the election for reasons that we raise between now and Election Day,” citing voting machines with foreign-made parts as the “reason."

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From an October 6, 2026, stream on YouTube by Michael Jaco

Later in the interview Savin referenced Byrne's conspiracy theories on election machines (Byrne suggested Trump seize the machines following the 2020 election) and asked, “How can you certify a vote that was done with uncertifiable — uncertified machines?” Savin then reiterated, “So what's Trump going to do? He can't certify the election. He lets it go forward, and let's have the food fight after the fact."

What comes next when “the core belief of the MAGA movement is we won the 2020 election.”

The election denial movement has not accomplished many of the key goals it’s set for itself. The SAVE America Act has no apparent path to become law. Trump has yet to issue a national emergency declaration or an executive order to take control of state election systems. The administration’s many efforts to uncover supposedly widespread noncitizen voting haven’t produced any tangible evidence of its existence.

These are real losses, but Trump and his media allies remain dedicated to subverting elections in the United States. As Bannon recently said to CBS News, “The core belief of the MAGA movement is we won the 2020 election." That load-bearing lie continues to animate Trump’s movement, and there is no reason to believe that it will be any different on Election Day or in the days after.

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Juan O. Savin, an ally of Tina Peters, suggests “Trump had meetings in the White House” discussing plans that may include refusing to certify election results

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  1. ### Real America's Voice host Wayne Allyn Root lays out a plan for an emergency executive order on elections

06/30/26

Cleta Mitchell reacts to the Supreme Court late-arriving mail-in ballots ruling by saying it's time to challenge early voting

Mitchell to Steve Bannon: “There's a lot in that opinion that would suggest that we ought to be challenging early voting. We ought to be challenging unfettered absentee voting.”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published 06/30/26

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From the June 29, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): You know, I think that - I don't know, but Amy Coney Barrett writes for the majority, and this is what is shocking, is that there are five justices of the Supreme Court who believe and who wrote in this opinion that there is a difference between casting the ballot, that is when the voters make their choice, and when the ballot is received. That makes no sense.

Frankly, according to their opinion, I actually think that this gives us good grounds to challenge early voting and to say that voting is — there's a lot in that opinion that would suggest that we ought to be challenging early voting. We ought to be challenging unfettered absentee voting because they also point out, which Marc Elias conveniently forgets to discuss, that — repeatedly they referred to the fact that the ballots had to be postmarked on or before election day.

Well, California doesn't require a postmark. I think we ought to challenge that. I think that what we have to do on our side is that we have to do what the left has done. And I know that that when Stephen Miller started America First Legal Foundation after — in 2021, the idea was to build a judicial attack mob that's similar to what the left has. And we haven't really done that.

I mean, they — there are — we've done a lot better. But these guys, the left challenges everything. And we are getting these terrible decisions from these awful left-wing trial court judges all over the country. And then this decision — to me, the worst part of this decision is it emboldens these left-wing crazy judges that are inhabiting our courts all over the country. That's the constitutional crisis we face, is all of these judges.

But I will tell you that I think that there is a roadmap in this. Unfortunately, it requires congressional action and we see how terrible Congress, the US Senate is. So I mean it's, we have a crisis because the judges are not letting the president do his job and they're trying to do Congress's job.

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June 30, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

STEVE BANNON (HOST): SAVE America Act — a lot of people are saying, hey, do we have time to implement it? Are we going to have lawsuits? But President Trump is driving forward. We're a huge proponent of that.

We also know that Bill Pulte is at DNI, and that John Solomon of Real America's Voice is leading a task force on declassification. And yesterday, Pulte hired, from the RNC, as his chief of staff, one of the top election fraud people in all of the RNC to be his chief of staff. So he's telling you where he's — signaling where he's going on this.

My understanding — I don't have any access to this classified information — but my understanding is that there is going to be real revelations about the stealing of the 2020 election.-

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Election deniers reach a fever pitch calling for a “national emergency” declaration so Trump can give himself “king-like powers” over the midterms

Tina Peters: “I believe Trump could sign an executive order to get rid of the machines and say ... that a vendor cannot have that much influence over our elections”

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 06/30/26

After President Donald Trump issued an executive order at the end of March aimed at stopping supposed fraud with mail-in ballots, election deniers have urged Trump to declare a national emergency to allow a federal takeover of election processes. On June 24, Trump echoed those calls and suggested that passing a bill to supposedly combat election fraud is a “national emergency.”

Media figures who have pushed claims of widespread election fraud — some of whom say they have been involved with drafting such an order that is “sitting on his [Trump’s] desk” — have urged Trump to give himself “king-like powers” by implementing the proposal, as it would supposedly empower Trump to “be able to make the rules” and use the National Guard to oversee midterm elections. Others claim that they have asked Trump directly to invoke the proposed order, saying it would be “very easy” for the president to “issue an executive order through a national emergency and have the National Guard count those ballots by hand.”

Election deniers drafted executive order declaring a national emergency to implement election policies and Trump issued an executive order on mail-in ballots

During his second term, Trump has issued two executive orders related to elections. As explained by The New York Times, a March 2025 order instructs the Election Assistance Commission “to require people to show government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and directs state or local officials to record and verify the information,” and it “seeks to require states to count ballots by Election Day.” Multiple federal judges have since blocked that executive order.

On March 31, Trump issued an executive order that directs the Department of Homeland Security to “compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State,” and instructs the U.S. Postal Service to “transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List.” NPR reported that “election experts said the order was unconstitutional.” After Trump signed the executive order, election deniers hailed it as a “win” that will leave Democrats “toast.” On June 25, a federal judge blocked parts of the order.

While Trump reportedly “shrugged off reports that he could consider declaring a national emergency around the midterm elections,” he has repeatedly advocated for the SAVE America Act, which would put restrictions on voting but has struggled to pass in Congress. On June 24, Trump canceled plans to sign bipartisan housing legislation “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”

As the 2026 midterms approach, right-wing media and the Trump administration appear to have ramped up their efforts to undermine the midterm elections — invoking repeatedly debunked conspiracy theoriesabout widespread election fraud in the U.S., relying on one-off incidents and hypotheticals that are often exaggerated or misleading, and pushing for Trump policy priorities like the SAVE America Act.

Election deniers have already claimed that primaries for the 2026 midterms have featured election fraud, and Savin himself has claimed that the primary elections have been “laying the groundwork” for Trump to declare a national emergency — language which the president has now repeated.

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  1. ### Right-wing figures and Trump allies are calling for Trump to declare a “national emergency” to prevent supposed election fraud

:{10/28/25

  1. ### Election deniers have reportedly coordinated with the Trump White House on a draft executive order declaring a “national emergency” over elections

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  1. ### At election denial summit, media figures endorse ICE at the polls and suggest executing a “prominent traitor” from the deep state “to improve our elections”

06/25/26

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At election denial summit, media figures endorse ICE at the polls and suggest executing a “prominent traitor” from the deep state “to improve our elections”

Podcaster David Clements: “The one thing that we need to see is a prominent traitor brought before you ... and after that due process, they get to suffer the legally prescribed penalty, which may or may not include a firing squad”

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 06/25/26

Last week, multiple promoters of election denial conspiracy theories spoke at a summit co-led by a QAnon influencer, calling on attendees to monitor voting precincts and to use “a tribunal” and a “legally prescribed penalty” like “a firing squad” as a possible solution to “improve our elections.” Some speakers touted connections to the Trump administration.

The Fraud-Fighter Summit, which took place between June 15-17 in Las Vegas, aimed to “confront fraud in elections” and featured “powerful presentations and discussions on topics such as tabulator vulnerabilities and advanced methods for detecting manipulation in election processes.” The event seems to have been coordinated by two figures in the election denial movement, Wayne Willott and Matt Meck. Willott, known online as Juan O. Savin, helped organize a coalition of election denial candidates for the 2022 midterm elections and claimed to have been involved with a proposed “national emergency” executive order for President Donald Trump to control elections. Meck is a board member of Fight Voter Fraud — an organization which “has been criticized in the past for repeatedly advancing unfounded claims based on its misinterpretation of voter registration information and other data,” — and also apparently Savin’s “chief of staff.”

Speakers and presenters included Tina Peters, Steve Bannon, Jim Marchant, David Clements, Peter Ticktin, Martin Rodil, and Douglas Frank.

Notable moments from the summit include:

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From the Fraud-Fighter Summit on June 16, 2026, streamed on Rumble

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From the Fraud-Fighter Summit on June 17, 2026, streamed on Rumble

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From the Fraud-Fighter Summit on June 17, 2026, streamed by UnAuthorized

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From the Fraud-Fighter Summit on June 17, 2026, streamed on the “Bannons War Room” Rumble channel

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From a video of the Fraud-Fighter Summit uploaded to Telegram on June 16, 2026

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From the Fraud-Fighter Summit on June 16, 2026, streamed on Rumble

[vid]

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  1. ### Right-wing figures and Trump allies are calling for Trump to declare a “national emergency” to prevent supposed election fraud

:{10/28/25

  1. ### QAnon influencer says he impacted decisions of secretary of state candidates in Colorado

:{03/11/22

  1. ### Election denier reportedly involved with Trump administration’s 2020 election probes suggests Maricopa County, Arizona, is the administration’s next target

02/11/26

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Election deniers push conspiracy theories about primaries in GOP-run Texas

QAnon figure Juan O. Savin: “People were just floored by what was going on” in Texas with the “massive cheating”

Written by Alex Kaplan

:{Published 04/20/26

Election deniers have been targeting this year’s primary and special elections in Texas, claiming there has been “massive” fraud and cheating.

Attorney Peter Ticktin, activist Linda Szynkowicz, QAnon influencer Wayne Willott, and others who promoted false claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential contest are now claiming on social media and on podcasts that in Texas, votes “got switched,” people used “ghost voting IDs,” and they found “cloned voters.”

For years, right-wing media and politicians have been pushing conspiracy theories about supposed election fraud across the country, and recent claims seem to be part of an apparent effort to undermine the 2026 midterm elections.

Election deniers are now targeting elections in GOP-run Texas}:

Republicans have full control of the Texas government, and a Republican-appointed secretary of state serves as the state's chief election officer.

A show host asked if the Texas gubernatorial primary was “an Antrim County situation,” referring to a Michigan county where some falsely claimed that machines changed votes in 2020, and asked if votes for Chambers and Abbott “got switched.”

“Our election system is entirely compromised,” Ticktin replied. “The same voter base, the same voter rolls, the same machines can operate on any election in the United States.”

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From the March 18, 2026, edition of Nino's Corner, streamed on YouTube

He said the elections “appear[ed] to be tampered with,” and the state had “not produced an honest or transparent result,” and therefore it “should not be certified.”

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From the March 18, 2026, edition of Stern American, streamed on Rumble

Trump’s FBI also raided the Fulton County, Georgia, election center as part of a Justice Department probe of the 2020 election, and Trump released an executive order seeking to limit who is eligible for mail-in voting, drawing praise from election deniers. Some of these activists have also drafted and advocated for a “national emergency” executive order to allow a federal takeover of election processes.

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MAGA Conspiracy Tours Plagued With ‘Grifter’ Allegations

KNIVES OUT

Conspiracy theorists are hitting the road together, with tickets selling for $149. What could go wrong?

Kelly Weill

Reporter

Updated Oct. 26, 2022

By Oct. 19, Truth Tour 2 was near its end. So was its leader’s patience.

“I will NOT take it any longer,” the organizer, Lewis Herms wrote on the messaging app Telegram. “It appears as if the lies, rumors and infiltration of the Truth Tour and it's [sic] participants is reaching epic levels.”

For weeks, Truth Tour 2 had been on the road, bringing its eclectic mix of fringe speakers to hotel conference rooms across the country. There were COVID denialists, election denialists, and at least one globe denialist. But nestled among the semen-retention evangelists and a self-described “Shamanic Priestess™ of the Magdalene Mysteries School” were figures with startlingly long reaches in rightwing politics.

Those marquee names includedJim Watkins, the 8kun owner speculated to be behind the QAnonconspiracy theory (he denies the claims) and Judy Mikovitz, a doctor who starred in the Covid denial film “Plandemic.” And there was one of the tour’s biggest stars, Juan O. Savin (real name Wayne Willott), who got his hands in real politics by assembling a coalition of election-denying secretary of state candidates - a fact bragged during Truth Tour appearances.

[This QAnon Leader Could Control Key Elections in 2024

‘PLAN A: SEE JUAN’

Will Sommer]

And for just $49 to $149 in 17 cities, followers of fringe politics got a chance to see them all.

But the relative success of the roadshow was not enough to spare the series from rightwing infighting, with critics accusing Herms, conspiracy influencer and founder of Truth Tour 2,of unjustly cashing in on the MAGA movement.

Herms did not take kindly to these accusations.....

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In QAnon circles, some far-right conspiracy theorists believe that Juan O. Savin, a.k.a. Wayne Willott, is really John F. Kennedy Jr. — who was 38 when he was killed in a plane crash in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1999. Kennedy, according to their outlandish claim, faked his own death and is now a 61-year-old influencer in the far-right QAnon movement.

But Savin/Willott himself has never claimed to be President John F. Kennedy’s son. He has, however, promoted another bogus conspiracy theory: the Big Lie, falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump through widespread voter fraud. And Savin/Willott is the co-founder of the America First Secretary of State Coalition (AFSOSC), an organization that is trying to get fellow Big Lie promoters elected to secretary of state positions in the 2022 midterms. One of his candidates is Jim Marchant, Nevada’s Republican secretary of state nominee and AFSOSC’s other co-founder.

The Daily Beast’s Kelly Weill examines the progress that Savin/Willott has made in an article published on October 25, noting that AFSOSC’s coal is “to place election-denying candidates in charge of states’ elections.”

READ MORE:This Big Lie-promoting conspiracy theorist could become Nevada’s top election official

:{:{“Just weeks out from the midterms,” Weill reports, “some AFSOS-backed candidates have remained in lockstep with Savin and his allies, even as other Republicans draw away from the QAnon-aligned figures. Secretaries of state help run elections and certify their states’ election results; following Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 loss, election deniers on the right have eyed secretary of state roles as a possible way to force Republican victories.”}:

Marchant, according to Weill, has said, “When I’m secretary of state of Nevada, we are going to fix it, and when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected, we’re going to fix the whole country — and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024.”

Weill warns that Savin/Willott’s “partnership” with Marchant “is anything but small.”}:

“The AFSOSC site solicits donations through another Marchant-run group, Conservatives for Election Integrity,” Weill reports. “That PAC has raised more than $400,000 since the beginning of the year, recent finance filings show. One of CFEI’s largest donors is the America Project, a group co-founded by election deniers and Trump pals Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne. CFEI has spent nearly $170,000 on a Las Vegas contractor that previously made headlines for recruiting Proud Boys to attend a rally outside a Nevada election center just days after the 2020 vote, OpenSecrets reported.”

READ MORE:**:{ :(style="color:#313131;;background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[QAnon followers are focused on 'a new project' in swing states

Weill continues, “Meanwhile, AFSOSC is backing candidates in multiple close races, in swing states where a partisan secretary of state could change the shape of future elections. Some of those candidates are active participants in events with Savin and other conspiracy theorists. The day after (an October 14) speech in Florida, Savin attended a ‘New Mexico Election Integrity Forum’ hosted by Lara Logan.Also in attendance, in person or virtually, were Marchant, New Mexico secretary of state candidate Audrey Trujillo, Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, and Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo. All are AFSOSC candidates who have peddled conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.”

The Beast reporter points out that some of Savin/Willett’s AFSOSC candidates are very competitive in their races.

“Marchant has consistently polled ahead of his Democratic opponent Cisco Aguilar,” Weill observes. “A survey from Arizona’s Family and HighGround in mid-October found Finchem polling one point ahead of the state’s Democratic candidate.”

READ MORE:**Doug Mastriano shredded by Philly paper for 'chilling' plans to overturn future elections**

mma 10 22

QAnon influencer “Juan O. Savin” — who is connected to Nevada Republican secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant — falsely suggested in an online interview that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed at least 58 people was “manufactured” and that the victims’ deaths did not happen.

While at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas in 2021, Marchant revealed that Savin, whose real name is Wayne Willott, played a role in recruiting him to run for secretary of state. The two also helped form what is now known as the America First Secretary of State Coalition — a group that Marchant leads with the aim of electing Republican candidates who have made false claims of widespread voter fraud to positions that influence election administration. It includes other GOP candidates, such as Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. Other candidates who had been tied to the coalition have since confirmed Savin’s involvement, and Savin has openly discussed in online interviews his involvement with the coalition and its members, such as claiming to have consulted with Karamo.

In an interview posted online on September 28, a fellow QAnon figure claimed that there would be “an illusion of a nuclear attack” with “little toys” like “CGI and all the kind of stuff they did on 9/11.” In response, Savin said that “some of the deaths are real, some of it is manufactured.” He then pointed to the Las Vegas shooting, suggesting it did not “happen the way that we were told it happened.” He then falsely claimed that “there was no spike in emergency room admissions after the Las Vegas shooting.”

Savin’s implication that the Las Vegas shooting’s death count was faked comes as he has repeatedly pushed 9/11**Trutherism**and threatened “civil war” if people “move past” false claims of voter fraud in 2020

[CitationFrom a video uploaded toRumble on September 28, 2022

:{

}:

mICHAEL JACO (HOST): Looks like they want to start some kind of nuclear conflict. Whether it’s going to be real, which I don’t think it will be, or whether it will be some kind of — like, we’re — like you guys are expert at, some kind of illusion, an illusion of a nuclear attack, where they show, you know, through, you know, their mainstream media forces, you know, some kind of attack. Like they’ve already started, you know, saying, “New York, you need to prepare for a nuclear event.” So they could — they could fake one. I totally believe they might fake one, just like they did 9/11, you know, CGI and all the kind of stuff they did on 9/11, you know. You know, directed energy weapons, all kind of crazy stuff that at that time, most of us didn’t realize we had that kind of technology. So, you know, they have little toys, little things they can, they can use. And I think they might use something like it. You can see [they are] talking about it. So what do you think, Juan?

JUAN O. SAVIN: Well, you know, the problem is, if, you know, some of the deaths are real, some of it is manufactured. Did Las Vegas happen the way that we were told it happened? We look at the emergency room admissions and there was no spike in emergency room admissions after the Las Vegas shooting. We look at the buildings collapsed on 9/11. Well, they definitely collapsed — two airplanes, three buildings, a 50-story building, one of only three buildings in the history of the world, steel frame buildings, to collapse like this. It couldn’t have happened the way that it was said that it did. So is there going to be real deaths?

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QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin, who is involved in a coalition to recruit and elect election denier secretary of state candidates, has falsely claimed that the September 11 terrorist attacks were a false flag operation carried out by a United States “shadow government” agency to “manipulate the American people.”

The America First Secretary of State Coalitionis led by Nevada Republican secretary of state nominee Jim Marchant and boasts other GOP candidates, including Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. The coalition aims to elect Republican candidates who have made false claims of widespread voter fraud to positions influencing election administration.

In 2021, Marchant appeared at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas and said that Wayne Willott — a QAnon influencer known online as “Juan O. Savin” — helped create the coalition and recruit him to run for secretary of state. Other candidates who had been tied to the coalition have since confirmed Savin’s involvement, and Savin has openly discussed in online interviews his involvement with the coalition and its members, such as claiming to have consulted with Karamo.

While Savin has been involved with the coalition and its members — who, if elected, could play a role in the 2024 presidential election — he has recently promoted the false claim that the September 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job caused by the United States federal government.

During recent interviews, Savin pointed to the September 11 attacks as evidence to claim that President Joe Biden would seek to delay the midterm elections with an announcement in late October, possibly by declaring martial law.

In one interview posted online on September 18, Savin claimed his “buddy Bill Cooper” — referring to a deceased militia member and influential conspiracy theorist — predicted an attack on the World Trade Center months before the September 11 attacks, allegedly saying that the government was “going to try and pin something on Osama bin Laden.” Savin added that “Osama bin Laden didn’t have shit to do with 9/11,” and claimed that it “was somebody’s way of conning you to get you ready so you’d accept what they wanted to do.”

Savin repeated these baseless claims in multiple interviews.In an interview posted online that same day, Savin said that Cooper was “right,” that the September 11 attacks were “staged,” and that then-Vice President Dick Cheney secretly led a part of the federal “shadow government” that was involved in creating “false flags” to “manipulate the American people,” including the “9/11 stuff.[vid]

in another interview posted online two days later, Savin went even further, falsely claiming Cheney led a “shadow government” agency that carried out “false flag” operations, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in order to “create a threat” to “manage the American people and world opinion so that they can help move us” toward “global control.” Savin cited a CIA contractor who supposedly said he went into World Trade Center Building 7 to hide “all the explosives so that they could bring Building 7 down” in a “controlled demolition.” (Savin in the interview also seemed to invoke a baseless conspiracy theory that the 1969 moon landing was staged by the late film director Stanley Kubrick.[[vid]

savin’s 9/11 Trutherism — which is widespread within the QAnon community — comes as he has also threatened “civil war” if people “move past” false claims of voter fraud in 2020. Savin’s influence has also extended outside of the coalition to include traveling with and claiming to have hired far-right figure Lara Logan for “election integrity” events and collaborating with election denial funder Patrick Byrne.

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Podcast host Shemane Nugent said during an interview with QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin that she knew “you’ve been with” former President Donald Trump previously.

Savin, whose real name is Wayne Willot, is a QAnon influencer who has warned of “civil war” if people “move[d] past” false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and is part of a coalition to recruit and elect secretary of state candidates around the country in order to control election administration as part of an effort to push false voter fraud claims.

During the interview posted on July 12, Nugent — a fellow QAnon supporter and wife of former National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent — discussed meeting Trump previously, including in a “private roundtable discussion,” and said to Savin, “We went to the White House before, I know you’ve been with him, too.” Savin has previously claimed he’s been to Mar-A-Lago, where he said he’s been around Trump, and has also previously claimed he was in a “meeting … with someone that’s very close to the president [Trump] on a weekly basis." [aud]

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sHEMANE NUGENT (HOST): So what — what can we do? What are our marching orders? What are the tools that we need to get through these difficult times? Because we were with President Trump about a month ago, Ted played the national anthem at his rally in Austin, and we had an opportunity to speak to him. And I got to tell you, it was funny. We were sitting around this — we had a private roundtable discussion with President Trump, and there were about ten other people there. And each person got a chance to go around. They went around the table and each person had a chance to say something to President Trump. And we — we went to the White House before, I know you’ve been with him, too. We had dinner with him and Kid Rock and Sarah Palin at the White House when he was president.…

And so, anyways, I’m asking you the difficult questions, but what I wanted to tell you is that President Trump said — I quoted Ephesians. I said, “This is spiritual warfare. We know what's going on. We know we need to put on the full armor of God. What can we do?” I'm asking you that, too. And he said, “You know, I think this had to happen so people could wake up.” And then he also said, Juan, “It's going to get worse.”

JUAN O. SAVIN: Yes, it’s going to get a lot worse. This is a near-death experience for America. You have to see what these people would do if they were in control permanently here in the country.

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wayne Willott, a QAnon influencer known online as “Juan O. Savin” who is recruiting and supporting candidates for election-administration positions around the country,warned of “civil war” if people try to “move past” the 2020 presidential election.

Savin is part of a coalition led by Jim Marchant, which aims to recruit and elect secretary of state candidates who have pushed false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

While appearing on a QAnon supporter’s online show, Savin said that “you cannot move past” the false voter fraud claims in the 2020 election and that if people try to there would be “probably civil war for America” because “there’s plenty of Americans that will not put up with this and they will not stand down.”

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 SAVIN: The message that the president [Donald Trump] gave to America on his last day in office is the message from my book. It’s all about election 2020. It’s all about election 2020. You cannot move past it. If you move past it, you’ll never get another better, fairer, straighter shot, and, unfortunately, probably civil war for America, cause there’s plenty of Americans that will not put up with this and they will not stand down. 

SCOTT KESTERSON (HOST): I agree. This is going to be — this is a big moment.

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in Nevada, far-right MAGA Republican, QAnon ally and conspiracy theorist Jim Marchant has been a loud, aggressive promoter of the "big lie" — falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. And he is now the GOP nominee for Nevada secretary of state, which means that if he defeats the Democratic nominee, attorney Cisco Aguilar, in November, he will be the state’s top election official in 2023.

On Monday, June 14, Marchant was the clear winner in Nevada’s GOP secretary of state primary, picking up 38 percent of the vote and defeating second-place candidate Jesse Haw by 18 percent. The position Marchant is running for is presently held by Barbara Cegavske, a conservative Republican who was censured by the Nevada Republican Party for refusing to promote the "big lie" after now-President Joe Biden won the state in 2020. Cegavske, who is term-limited, maintained that there was no evidence to show that Biden didn’t win Nevada fair and square — and she was inundated with death threats from Trump supporters after certifying Biden’s victory in Nevada.

But Marchant has stressed that had he been Nevada secretary of state in 2020, he never would have certified Biden’s victory. Marchant is president of an organization called the America First Secretary of State Coalition, which has been promoting MAGA Republicans and Trump loyalists who are running for secretary of state positions — including Mark Finchem in Arizona and Kristina Karamo in Michigan. The group also promoted Rep. Jody Hice’s primary campaign against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, but that primary didn’t go well for the Trump-endorsed Hice; Raffensperger, who refused to go along with Trump’s "big lie," enjoyed a landslide victory.

In Pennsylvania, the America First Secretary of State Coalition is supporting Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, a “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorist who has falsely claimed that Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020. If elected governor in November, Mastriano will have a chance to pick Pennsylvania’s next secretary of state; in Pennsylvania, the secretary of state is chosen by the governor.

The term “voter suppression” is usually used to describe all the ways in which GOP-sponsored laws at the state level are making it more difficult to vote, such as eliminating or reducing early voting and mail-in ballots —and it is no coincidence that they are targeting heavily Democratic areas. But what Marchant and others in the America First Secretary of State Coalition are proposing is much more dangerous than making voting more difficult or inconvenient. Marchant is part of a movement in which MAGA Republicans are trying to take over the administration of elections and be in a position to simply throw out election results they don’t like.

One of Marchant’s main allies is QAnon extremist Wayne Willott, a.k.a. Juan O. Savin, who co-founded the America First Secretary of State Coalition. Members of QAnon were among the extremists who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, but Willott’s involvement in QAnon obviously doesn’t bother Marchant.

If the 2022 midterms see a major red wave and enough MAGA Republicans are victorious at the state level, it could affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. MAGA secretaries of state could refuse to certify any Democratic Electoral College victories in swing states, making false claims of election fraud just as Trump’s allies did in 2020.

From Pennsylvania to Michigan to Arizona, the MAGA movement and “Stop the Steal” Republicans are determined to be in control regardless of the actual outcome of elections — and in Nevada, that includes secretary of state nominee Jim Marchant.

https://www.alternet.org/2**022/06/**qanons-influence-trumpified-radicalized-gop/

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Anon conspiracy theorists suffered a major disappointment when Donald Trump was voted out of the White House in 2020, but their presence in the Republican Party and the MAGA movement didn’t go away. QAnon’s ideas have been promoted by far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado — and QAnon devotee Lauren Witzke, who lost to Democratic Sen. Chris Coons in Delaware’s 2020 U.S. Senate race, is a pundit in Christian nationalist media broadcasts.

Moreover, QAnon’s influence in the GOP has grown to the point that a QAnon activist — Wayne Willott, a.k.a. Juan O. Savin — is trying to get MAGA Republicans elected to secretary of state positions so that they will play key roles in the administration of elections. Journalist Will Sommer, in an article published by the Daily Beast on June 1, takes a disturbing look at Willott’s “growing influence” both inside and outside the QAnon cult.

According to Sommer, Willott is doing a lot more than promoting conspiracy theories online. He is the co-founder of a group called theAmerica First Secretary of State Coalition, and his candidates have been running in GOP primaries in the 2022 midterms.

“While the 65-year-old Willott remains all but unknown outside of QAnon,” Sommer reports, “he’s a figure with growing influence in both the conspiracy-theory universe and the broader conservative movement…. The America First Secretary of State Coalition now stands poised to have its candidates win offices in key battleground states. One of the group’s candidates, Kristina Karamo, has already won the Republican nomination for the position in Michigan.”

Sommer adds, “Another candidate, 2020 election denier and Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem, has won Trump’s endorsement and looks set to win his state’s primary as well. If victorious in the general election, both candidates could play a key role in how electoral votes from their states are allotted in 2024.”

Alex Kaplan, a researcher for Media Matters, warns that Willott’s extremism should not be taken lightly.

Kaplan told the Beast, “If one of these candidates in the future gets elected, there is a QAnon influencer that could help lead to a constitutional crisis.”

QAnon conspiracy theorists have no problem believing ludicrous things. Supporters of QAnon claim that the United States’ federal government has been hijacked by an international cabal of child sex traffickers, Satanists, pedophiles and cannibals and that Trump was elected president in 2016 to fight the cabal. And some QAnon extremists, according to Sommer, believe that Willott is really John F. Kennedy, Jr.

“Thanks to his ties throughout the conspiracy theorist community and rumors that he’s JFK Jr.,” Sommer reports, “Willott’s star shot up on the right in 2020 and 2021. Signed copies of his book promoting QAnon have sold for hundreds of dollars on eBay. With Q, the originator of QAnon, silent since December 2020, Willott quickly became one of the leading sources of QAnon information.”

Sommer adds, “Willott’s rise to the top of the QAnon heap was abetted by the other QAnon promoters’ refusal to take the coronavirus vaccine. In the course of just a few months, two anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists who had promoted Willott, Robert David Steele and Cirsten Weldon, both died of COVID-19.”

A recurring theme with QAnon is that Democrats, including teachers, are “groomers” who are trying to harm childrenby promoting homosexuality and bisexuality in schools and pushing a transgender agenda. In 2022, anti-trans bills sponsored by far-right Republicans have been plentiful in state legislatures.

Journalist Kristi Pahr, reporting for Fatherly.com in late April, noted that at least 150 anti-trans bills had been introduced in state legislatures in 2022 — many of which were passed and signed into law.

“Given the onslaught of hundreds of bills that are under consideration, it can be hard for parents of trans kids or parents who are transgender themselves to know what’s happening where they live — and how to press lawmakers to fight against anti-trans laws,” Pahr reported. “That’s why one group, the Trans Formations Project, developed a tool for tracking discriminatory legislation so the public can find out what’s happening in their states. The project also lists contact information for state legislators and provides descriptions of any proposed legislation in easy-to-understand language, without all the legal jargon and vagueness that tends to obfuscate what passed laws would actually do to our kids.”

Pahr cited Texas, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana, Arkansas and Mississippi as examples of red states where anti-trans bills have become law. And Florida, a swing state, is the home of what has been widely criticized as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Pahr describes it as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, reminding Fatherly readers that the law is not only anti-gay, but also, anti-trans.

The anti-trans laws being introduced by far-right Republicans in state legislatures don’t mention QAnon specifically, but they underscore QAnon’s influence on the Republican Party. When Republicans talk about “groomers” in defense of anti-trans bills, it is right out of QAnon’s Democrats-want-to-harm-your-children playbook.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee in Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial race, is among the far-right MAGA Republicans and conspiracy theorists who hasn’t been the least bit shy about promoting QAnon. In July 2021, Media Matters’ Eric Hananoki reported that Mastriano had promoted QAnon in more than 50 tweets.

Christian nationalist Witzke has been another outspoken QAnon promoter. When Witzke ran for the U.S. Senate seat in Delaware that was once held by now-President Joe Biden, she lost badly: In 2020, Democratic incumbent Coons defeated her by 22%.

But the fact that Delaware Republicans nominated someone as extreme as Witzke in the first place is a frightening example of the GOP’s radicalization. And Witzke hasn’t grown any less extreme or any less kooky since 2020.

These days, Witzke is making her presence felt in Christian nationalist broadcasts. Witzke praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a symbol of Christian piety in February and applauded the invasion of Ukraine. And now, she is implying that Democrats in the federal government and their "RINO" (Republicans In Name Only) allies are behind a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Witzke believes that Democrats targeted Robb Elementary School not only to promote gun control, but also, because they are worried about Latinos voting Republican.

Witzke said, “I think about the conspiracy behind all of it. I’m like, OK, what do they gain from it besides the gun control push? But also, Hispanics are starting to vote Republican and conservative. They specifically targeted a school in an area that is majority Hispanic. It’s essentially Mexico is what it is.”

Witzke went on to say, “They’re watching as Hispanics are starting to lean more conservative, and these people are crazy. Midterms are coming up. And there’s no limit to how far they’ll go to change the public narrative on things. So, I think it was multi-faceted. Of course, it was a federal operation in order to implement gun control…. All this stuff is organized and operated.”

The claim that Democrats in the federal government are orchestrating mass shootings of schoolchildren because they believe it will help them politically is exactly the type of ludicrous conspiracy theory QAnon supporters are coming up with. And this type of thinking has become mainstream in the Trumpified, radicalized GOP.

From Willott and Witzke to Mastriano, Boebert and Greene, QAnon is more than a movement of fringe conspiracy theorists who make wacky claims online. It is now a prominent influence in the Republican Party, even influencing anti-trans, anti-gay laws they are passing. And if Republicans enjoy a major red wave in the 2022 midterms, QAnon’s influence will only grow.